The present invention relates to methods and devices for dispensing or vending of articles and, in particular, it concerns an interactive automated system for dispensing and returning cloth articles.
In order to overcome the problems associated with manual unsupervised distribution of scrub outfits, hospitals have, in resent years, turned to automated scrub outfit dispensing devices.
One attempt to overcome these problems has been suggested by Fitzgerald et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,985, for a dispensing device, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,713,270 and 5,829,349, for an item return cabinet. The dispenser of Fitzgerald et al. ('985) consists of a plurality of slots arranged in rows. Each row has its own access door, opening of which allows access to a full slot in the row. Each of the slots in a given row is accessible through multiple openings of the access door. One problem with the device of Fitzgerald et al. ('985) is the time required to stock the device with clean scrub outfits for dispensing, in that each of the slots must be manually filled. The embodiment of FIG. 1 illustrates a device with eight rows each containing more the twenty slots. That means that more than one hundred sixty slots must be individually filled.
A further attempt to overcome some of the problems associated with inventory control of hospital scrub outfits is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,934 to Shoenfeld. This device includes two belts, each with a plurality of pockets configured to hold articles. Each of the pockets of one of belt is filled with a scrub outfit top and each of the pockets of the second belt is filled with a scrub outfit bottom. A complex algorithm is used to determine the placements of different sized scrub outfits along the length of each of the belts. Here too, stocking requires that each pocket be individually filled. Once deployed in the device, the belts are wound and/or rewound to a pocket containing the desired size scrub outfit article, either top or bottom. Shoenfeld openly discusses the possibility of overloading one of the roller drums, thereby creating a situation where a desired article may actually be in the device, but not accessible for dispensing to the customer.
While both Fitzgerald et al. and Shoenfeld disclose the ability to communicate to the customer that the order can not be filled, and possibly the reason, neither Fitzgerald et al. nor Shoenfeld discloses the ability to inform the customer as to an alternative means by which the order may be filled.
There is therefore a need for an interactive automated system for dispensing cloth articles that provides for ease of stocking and interactivity with the customer so as to provide order filling options.